ICYMI: Valuentum’s Brian Nelson on the Latest Howard Marks’ Memo: “Something of Value”

Valuentum’s President of Investment Research Brian Michael Nelson, CFA, explains why there are not really value and growth stocks, why most of the research in quantitative finance is spurious and needs to be redefined on a forward-looking basis, and why enterprise valuation (not the efficient markets hypothesis) should be the organizing principle of finance. Nelson explains his views about valuation, what it means to be a value investor, and investing in the context of Oaktree Capital Howard Marks’ latest memo, “Something of Value,” January 11, 2021. Please don’t forget to give the second edition of the book “Value Trap” a 5-star rating on Amazon here. Thank you for your membership! —– Tickerized for holdings in the IWM. Valuentum members have … Read more

Value Is Not Static and the Qualitative Overlay Is Vital to Our Process

With prudence and care, the Valuentum Buying Index process and its components are carried out. Our analyst team spends most of its time thinking about the intrinsic value of companies within the context of a discounted cash-flow model and evaluating the risk profile of a company’s revenue model. We have checks and balances, too. First, we use a fair value range in our valuation approach as we embrace the very important concept that value is a range and not a point estimate. A relative value overlay as the second pillar helps to add conviction in the discounted cash-flow process, while a technical and momentum overlay seeks to provide confirmation in all of the valuation work. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes even before a VBI rating is published, but it will always be just one factor to consider. Within any process, of course, we value the human, qualitative overlay, which captures a wealth of experience and common sense. We strive to surface our best ideas for members.

Disney’s Mixed Report, Stamps Implodes, and Astronics for the Radar, More Reports

Disney’s Mixed Report, Stamps Implodes, and Astronics for the Radar, More Reports — In alphabetical order by ticker symbol: ATRO, DIS, ETSY, GDOT, NYT, PBPB, ROKU, STMP, SVMK, TPR, TVTY — Astronics (ATRO): We are strongly considering one of our favorite small-cap aerospace suppliers after a solid showing during its first quarter, results released May 8. If you may recall, Astronics was a winner in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio in the past, and even with Boeing on the skids given 737 MAX crashes, we’re not shying away from considering aerospace supply-chain exposure, given the massive backlogs at the airframe makers. Astronics’ sales advanced more than 16% in the quarter, and it registered its fifth consecutive quarter of record aerospace revenue. … Read more

MLPs Starting to Adopt Free Cash Flow?

Image shown: Since mid-June 2015, the price of an ETF tracking the midstream MLP energy space (AMLP) has fallen more than 40% while the S&P 500 (SPY) has rallied more than 30%. No changes to simulated newsletter portfolios. By Brian Nelson, CFA Hi everyone! Hope you are having a nice start to the week. I have some great news for investors. In my lengthy piece from last Tuesday, which can read here, I talked about how master limited partnerships (MLPs) may be starting to embrace the very important metric free cash flow. If you remember, free cash flow is generally calculated as cash flow from operations less allcapital spending.  On the other hand, distributable cash flow, or the most widely-disseminated metric across midstream equities, generally excludes growth capital … Read more

2 Recent IPOs: Surveying SurveyMonkey and Sounding the Alarm on Sonos

Valuentum has an expansive stock research coverage universe. We don’t cover every company on the market, however. We include three new ideas outside of our coverage universe each month in the Exclusive publication—an income idea, a capital appreciation idea, and a short-idea consideration. In this article, let’s cover two companies that aren’t in our coverage universe but should be on your radar. Both are recent IPOs. By Brian Nelson, CFA SurveyMonkey’s Shares Are Fairly Valued SurveyMonkey (SVMK) has been around since the turn of the century, but it has only been a public entity since September 2018. Many members may have already heard of SurveyMonkey. The company has made it easier to engage with customers to get their feedback, and … Read more

Stock Market Outlook for 2021

By Valuentum Analysts February 8, 2021 2020 was one for the history books. We covered our thoughts and reflections on the past year in our “2020 Won’t Soon Be Forgotten” article (link here), and now we are looking towards the future. Global health authorities should be able to bring an end to the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic sooner than many had expected as several vaccines have already been improved for emergency use and several others appear increasingly likely to get approved. Global vaccine distribution activities are currently underway, and this should allow the world to slowly return to pre-pandemic activities. Before then, immense stimulus measures launched primarily in developed nations should support global economic activities until the public health crisis … Read more